When Chase canceled your HELOC with a zero balance, they should have filed a reconveyance of that trust deed within 30 days. You want to talk to the payoff and then reconveyance people at Chase and have your HELOC account number ready. They may have to audit the account to determine there is nothing currently owing on it. Chase (or WAMU) was lax about filing the reconveyance timely and you, as the borrower, should have been on theirs (or WAMU’s) a$$ about this like glue when they sent you the letter stating that they were closing your HELOC. Offer to fax that letter to the clerk you speak to if they don’t have a notation in their computer that your HELOC has been closed. A lot of banks did this to customers with unused HELOCs within the last three years.
If you don’t get immediate satisfaction talking to the payoff/demand and reconveyance personnel (i.e. they will audit and call you back in =< 3 business days), I would send them a certified letter if they gave me ANY RUN AROUND at all on the phone (feigning tied hands/incompetence/lack of personnel excuses). Take down first and last names and employee #'s, if applicable or every bank employee you speak to. I would then send it (return receipt requested), outlining the sequence of what happened with your HELOC with copies of statements from them showing your your zero balance with a copy of the letters they sent you lowering the HELOC and then canceling it (to set forth the 30-day time-frame for filing the reconveyance), with a DEMAND that they file a reconveyance with the San Diego County Recorder, State of California, within 15 days of receipt of this letter or you will take immediate legal action against them and request attorney fees in your complaint. You last para should read, “Upon filing, please send me a conformed copy of your filed reconveyance. Thank you in advance of your anticipated swift cooperation in this matter and I shall await your timely reply.” Keep your returned certified-mail green card or download the signature affidavit for receipt from USPS.com for your record of their receipt.
Make the demand letter and mailing envelope attention to the payoff dept with your HELOC account number in the subject line.
Keep all these documents in their own file folder, back to front chronologically on the right side, with tablet pages of notes of all your phone conversations with them on the left side.
Ricechex, I’m just curious. How were you allowed to take out a HELOC on the property when your joint-tenant (co-owner) was not a cosigner/co-borrower on it?? This is very irregular-sounding to me and I have never heard of such a thing.
